MYRICACEZ. (WAX-MYRTLE FAMILY.) 427 
serratnres near the apex, smooth, or pubescent on the yeins beneath, tapering 
into a petiole; sterile aments very numerous, oblong; bracts wedge-shaped ; 
stamens 4 ; fertile aments small; bracts rounded, obscurely 3-lobed ; scales of 
the ovary 4, ciliate ; stigmas 2; fruit abundant, white. — Margins of swamps, 
mostly near the coast, Florida, and northward. March and April.— A shrub 
or small tree. Leaves persistent along our southern limits, but northwardly 
deciduous, 13/ - 4’ long. À 
Var. media, Michx. Branchlets smooth or hairy ; leaves larger, obovate- 
oblong, entire, or slightly serrate near the apex, mostly rounded or emarginate 
at the summit ; aments and nuts larger ; scales of the sterile flower roundish. — 
Wet pine barrens. — Shrub 2°-4° high. Leaves mostly deciduous. 
Var. pumila, Michx. Low (19-29 high), much branched; leaves smaller 
(1-9! long), persistent, varying from wedge-obovate to wedge-lanceolate or 
linear-spatulate, coriaceous, obtuse, mostly toothed near the apex; aments 
minute, ovoid, few-flowered. — Sandy pine barrens. 
2. M. inodora, Bartr. Smooth; leaves perennial, coriaceous, oblong, 
obtuse, very entire, tapering into a petiole, with the margins revolute ; sterile 
aments oval or oblong, with the roundish bracts transversely ridged on the 
back; stamens about 10, monadelphous ; fertile aments small, elongated in 
fruit; stigmas 2 or 4; scales of the ovary 5; nuts large, black, commonly soli- 
tary. — Margins of pine-barren ponds and swamps, Florida, common near the - 
Coast. Feb.~March.— A shrub or small tree, with whitish bark. Leaves 
about 2! long, sparingly dotted. Nuts ovoid, 3” long. 
2. COMPTONIA, Solander. Sweer-Fern. 
Flowers moneecious. Sterile ament cylindrical, with kidney-shaped acumi- 
Date bracts. Stamens 3, forked. Fertile ament globular, bur-like. Ovary 
Surrounded by 5-6 long and slender persistent scales; ovule orthotropous. 
Stigmas 2, spreading. Nut ovoid-oblong, smooth, — Low shrubs, with narrow 
pinnatifid leaves, and small semicordate stipules. 
1. C. asplenifolia, Ait. Leaves thin, short-petioled, linear-lanceolate, 
With numerous rounded lobes, deciduous; fertile aments at the base of the 
Sterile, appearing before the leaves. — Dry woods, North Carolina, and north- 
Ward. April. — Plant 19—29 high, aromatic when bruised. Leaves 3/-4/ 
long, resembling those of a fern. ii 
| 3. LEITNERIA, N. Gen, 
. Flowers in aments, dicecions, each in the axil of a scaledike bract. Calyx 
"nd corolla none. Sterile ament many-flowered, cylindrical, elongated ; bracts y 
Ovate, acuminate, imbricated, staminiferous at the base, hairy, the lower ones 
. Cüpty; stamens 5-10, free: anthers 2-celled, introrse. Fertile ament few- 
. Many-flowered, narrowly cylindrical, short, in fruit elongated ; bracts ovate, ap — 
. Proximate, at length scattered, the lower ones empty. Ovary ovoid, nearly - 
 mooth, with the base surrounded by a cup of 4 minute ovate toothed scales. 
